Apparatus for coating and treating metallic materials



April 13 1926. 1,580,891

i J. vl... HERMAN APPARATUS FOR GOATING AND TREATING METALLIC MATERIALSFiled June 26, 1925 v IIL.

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y Patented Apr.`13, 1926.

UNITED STATES APATENT OFFICE JOSEPH L. HERMAN', 0F PEORIA, ILLINOIS,ASSIGNOR TO MIDLAND UFACTURING `COMPANY, OF PEORIA, ILLINOIS, ACORPORATION F ILLINOIS. s

APPARATUS FOR COATING AND TREATING METALLIC MATERIALS.

Application led June 26, 192,5. Serial No. 39,729.

To atl whom t may concern.' Be it kno-wn that I, JOSEPH L. HERMAN, acitizen of the United States, residing at Peoria, in the county ofPeoria and State of Illinois, have invented new and useful Improvementsin an Ap-paratus for Coating and Treating Metallic Materials, of whichthe following is a specification.Vv

This invention has reference to an apparatus for coating and treatingmaterials having an iron or steel baseand particularly the coating andtreatment of sheets used for fabricated articles, structures and otherpurposes. l The invention has for its principal object to provide anapparatus for carrying out lthe process shown and described in LettersPatent of the United States, issued to me October 3, 1922, No.1,430,648, for a recessl of 'coating and treating' materials 4aving aniron base, and being an improvement upon the invention, improvements inan a 4paratus for coating ,and treating meta ic materials, for whichapplication for Let-- ters Patent of the United States lwas led by meApril 26, 1923, bearing Serial No. 634,77 3.

The invention has for a further object an apparatus of the characterdescribed, including a heat-treating furnace through which the coatedsheets are conducted immediately upon their leaving the molten-bath, andin whichl the coated sheets are heat-treated; such treatment having forits object to pro- 85 duce a coating more resistant to atmosphericrusting and corroding conditions than for ordinary galvanized sheets andwhich further will permit a heavier coated sheet v to be fabricatedwithout causing the coating 40 to'crack or Hake off as is the case withheavier coated sheets coated by means of an ordinary galvanizedapparatus. The resultant sheet' forms a matte surface incontredistinct'ion to the ordinary galvanized sheet y which has aspangled surface. The said matte surface is of such a character that itwill receive paint, enamel and the like which will firmly attachthemselves to the surface as against the necessity for using other meansto prepare an ordinary galvanized sheet to receive similar treatment.

A further object of the invention is a galvanizing apparatus, includinga heat-treatgalvanizing apparatus', including and;

ing furnace adapted for the heat-treatment of sheets limmediately uponthe sheets leav ing the molten-bath, such furnace embodying one or. moreheat-treating chambers throu h which the coated sheets are conducte thesheets beingv adapted to be heattreated byk means of heat radiated fromtheA walls of the chamber, the fuel employed for heatingl thefurnace'comprising oil, gas, or any ot er well known heating means.

A further object of the invention is a a furnace for heat-treatingsheets immediately upon their leaving the molten-bath,suitable-conducting devices for the sheets being located to conduct thesheets'through the heat-treating furnace.

A still further object of the invention is the provision of aAheat-treating furnace in a galvanizing apparatus adapted for theheattreatment of sheets immediately upon their leaving the molten-bath.The ingress and egress openings for the sheets at the front and rearends ofthe furnace being reduced to a minimum and constructed so 'astopractically prevent the infiltration of cold air into the heat-treatingchambers 'of such furnace.

That the invention may be more fully understood, reference is had to theaccompanying drawings forming part of this application', illustrating apreferred embo iment of the invention, in which:

Figure 1 is a longitudinally sectional view on a greatly reduced scalepartly broken away illustrating an apparatus embodying the inventionherein, the sheet galvanizing tank and associated parts being shown indotted lines and larrows being emplo ed to showthe course of the sheetsthrong such tank and heat-treating furnace and 'also showing the mannerin which the heat passes through the heat-treating furnace.

Fi re 2 is lan end-vlew of one end of the urnace as thesame would appearon the line 2-2Figure 1;

Fi re 3 is a crosssection as the same woul appear on vthe. line v3--3Figure 1,

. Figure 4 is across section as the same would appear on the line 4-4Figure 1.

Like characters of reference indicate corlol responding parts throughoutthe figures.

lin the drawings and in particular -Figure 1 there is illustrated bydotted lines a galvanizing tankl, suchas is commonly used for containingmolten zinc used for coat-ing sheets, which is well known to thoseskilled in this art. Tanks of this character and used for the purposesherein described include at the entrance end of the tank feeding-inrolls 2, at the discharge end of the tank discharging or exit rolls 3and guiding rolls 4 located within the tank mediate its ends. All suchrolls are usually positively driven, although such-driving or operatingmeans for tie rolls are not shown due to their being commonly and wellknown in the art. l

Adjoining the tank 1 and extending away therefrom at the discharge endthereof and for the purpose of heat-treating the coated sheets as theyleave the coating tank, is a heat-treating furnace 5 provided, as shown,with a longitudinally disposed heat-treating chamber 6 through which thecoated sheets are conducted and heat-treated. While li have shown onlyone heat-treating chamber 6 it is understood that it is contemplatedthat one or more such chambers may be provided, depending upon the scopeand use of the invention. The walls of the heattreating chamber 6, aresubjected to ,heat from the products of combustion formed by the burningof a suitable fuel which finds entrance to the furnace through ports f7,see Figures 1 and 3, on either side of the furnace and which traversesthe furnace longitudinally and i transversely thereof through therespective passages or flues 8, 10 and 11. Somewhat in the manner shownby the arrows in Figures 1, 3 and 4. Comy municating ports 9 areprovided at the front and rear ends of the furnace between the Vfines 8and 11, and 10 and 11 respectively so as to insure a completetransference of the heat from the products of combustion to therespective walls of the heating chamber 6; the products ofcombustionfinally escaping from the furnace through the stack 12.

13 designates a conveyor or conductor, preferably in the form of aplurality of endless chains which traverse `the heating chamber fromfront to rear, asrbest seen in Figure 1, and said chains operated bysprocket wheels 14 connected with a shaft 15 having secured thereon agear wheel 16 in mesh with a pinion 17 on a driving shaft 18 providedwith a pulley wheel 19 which may be operated by a belt from any suitablesource of power. This operating mechanism is located conveniently at therear end of the furnace and the 'sheets conducted by the conveyor 13throughthe furnace may be discharged from such conveyor 13 on to acooling rack, not shown., At the forward end of the furnace and at theentrance to the heating chamber 6 are guiding sprocket wheels 20 on ashaft 21 and at the base of the furnace at the forward end are otherguiding sprocket wheels 22 on a shaft 23. It being arranged that theconve or chains 13 traverse the heating chamber rom front to rear,thence down and under the furnace and back into the heating chamber, asshown. l

Extending forwardly from the heating chamber 6 and in communicationtherewith vis a hood 24 which is curved forwardly and downwardly andpreferably with an enlarged mouth which overlies and preferably projectsa short distance in to the coating tank l in proximity to or inassociation with the discharging rolls 3 so that the sheets which arecoated in the" tank and then discharged therefrom by the rolls 3 will bedirected upwardly and inwardly through the hood 24 into the heatingchamber 6 and on to the conveyor chains 13 which convey such coatingsheets through the heat-treating chamber for the heat-treating of suchcoated sheets. At the rear end of the furnace li provide the hinged.gate 25 which normally assumes the closed position shown in Figure 1.rllhis gate 'and the hood 24 function to restrict and prevent, as far aspossible, the infiltration of cold air into the heattreating chamber sothat an approximately uniform temperature may be maintained in saidchamber. This object is further attained by the construction of theshield 26 at the forward end of the furnace, which acts as a housing andembraces the meeting ends of the tank and the furnace as shown, upbetween 'which the conveyor chains 13 have passage and such shield andhood may be united in any suitable manner, the shield serving as asupport for the hood.

The coating tank 1 with the feeding, guiding and discharging rolls, asstated, are not into the hood of the furnace through and by means of thedischarged rolls 3, the coating sheets being fed on to the conveyorchains 13n and by the latter conducted through the heating chamber 6where the coating is heat-treated and such coated and heat-treatedsheets discharged from the rear end of the furnace'and on to the coolingtable .referred to. fihe temperatures employed maybe one of practiceandthe furnace may e of any suitable length consistent with the resultsto be obtained.

1. An, apparatus for galvanizing sheets comprising in combination, meansforcon tinuously coating the sheets, a furnace for heat-treating thecoated sheets, including a heat-treating chamber through which thecoated sheets pass asI they leave the coating means( a conveying meansfor carrying the `sheets throughy the furnace and means at either end ofthe,heat-treatingchambers for retarding or reducing to a minimumtheinfiltration and circulation of air in said heattreating chambers.

2. An apparatus for galvanizing sheets comprisin in combination, a sheetgalvanizing tan a heat-treating furnace next adjacent the'tank,conveying means `for conveying the coated sheets through the tank,

and means at either end of the furnace for through which the coatedsheets pass from the galvanizing tank to the furnace.

3. An apparatus for galvanizing sheets comprising in combination, agalvanizing tank, a heat-treating furnace next adjacentthe tank, havinga heat-treating chamber through which the coated sheets are conducted, acontinuously operated means to conduct the coated sheets through saidheattreating chamber, and a hood forming a continuation oftheheat-treating chamber and leading from the receiving end thereof to thedischarge point of the galvanizing tank, whereby the coated Sheets maybe discharged from the galvanizing tank and conveyed to and throughthefurnace without being exposed to the action of the atmosphere.

JOSEPH L. HERMAN. i

